Archives - 05 May 2017, Friday

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Virginia — In a cramped office at the Marines' Quantico base outside Washington, about 20 investigators sit elbow to elbow, staring into their computers as images of naked men and women flash across the screens. On the walls are white boards with statistics...

April federal employment figures are out with good news for post-9/11 veterans: Employment is at an all-time high. The unemployment rate for the youngest generation of veterans dipped from 5 percent in March to 3.9 percent last month -- the lowest since the federal government started ...

On May 4, one U.S. service member was killed during an operation against al-Shabaab near Barii, Somalia, approximately 40 miles west of Mogadishu. U.S. forces were conducting an advise and assist mission alongside members of the Somali National Army. Al-Shabaab presents a threat to Am...

HELSINKI — Denmark is responding to a perceived elevated military threat from Russia by rolling out plans to significantly scale up its contributions to the defense of the Baltic Sea region. The new plans, which have gained cross-party support in the Danish legislature, will see a hig...

MQ-9 Reaper with GBU-38 JDAMs loaded. CREECH AIR FORCE BASE: The Air Force has added the Joint Direct Attack Munition (GBU-38) a GPS-guided bomb, to the Reaper drone force, dropping the first one in a combat strike in Operation Inherent Resolve on Thursday. Lt. Col. David, director of...

The ninth edition of the Islamic State’s Rumiyah (“Rome”) magazine was released online earlier today. And it features an interview with an unnamed jihadist who is identified as the “emir” of the group’s “soldiers” in Egypt. This man runs a branch of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization...

WASHINGTON — Army secretary nominee Mark Green officially withdrew his name on Friday from consideration for the Pentagon post, saying his nomination had become an unfortunate distraction for the White House. “I am honored that President Trump nominated me for this position,” Green sa...

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The first F-35B to be assembled outside the U.S. was rolled out in Italy on Friday at a ceremony at the country’s assembly line, attended by the country’s top military brass. The aircraft, BL-1, will fly for the first time in late August and is due to be delivered to the Italian minis...

This appears to have been one of the “lilypad” bases that AFRICOM leaders have been talking about wanting to set up across Africa, giving the US military presence in several countries across the continent allowing them to carry out strikes anywhere on a whim.

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As NATO prepares for a meeting of Allied heads of state and government in Brussels on 25 May, the debate on burden-sharing is heating up considerably. Both before and after entering office as 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump has harshly criticised various NATO Alli...

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For the first few weeks of his training, as he learned how to fly remotely piloted aircraft, Master Sgt. Alex felt like he was in over his head. The RPA sensor operator, who joined the Air Force in 2000, had no previous experience flying before joining the Enlisted Pilot Initial Class...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The U.S. military said Friday a service member has been killed in Somalia during an operation against the extremist group al-Shabab as the United States steps up its fight against the al-Qaida-linked organization. A statement from the U.S. Africa Command said the ...

In Afghanistan and Iraq, US forces usually operated out of large Forward Operating Bases, with lavish logistics — ammunition, fuel, food, showers, even Pizza Huts — and well-established communications networks. A GPS system called Blue Force Tracker pinpointed subordinate units on the...

A US soldier was killed yesterday outside the capital of Mogadishu while fighting Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia. The casualty took place just five weeks after the Trump administration approved the expansion of military counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda in the Horn o...

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Ministry of Defence has initiated the tender to acquire new maritime patrol aircraft for the country's armed forces. The ministry said it has issued a request for information from potential suppliers. The ministry's Armament Inspectorate is awaiting potenti...

WASHINGTON — A pair of President Donald Trump's recent weekend trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million, new documents released by a conservative group show. The documents made public Thursday by Judicial Watch are some of the first to put even part of a pr...

A military judge says he has settled on an October trial date for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on charges that he endangered his comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Army Col. Jeffery Nance says he intends to start jury selection Oct. 16 and begin the trial in earnest o...

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Marine Corps will end hundreds of Osprey and helicopter training flights taking place annually at a tiny Hawaiian airport after residents questioned their legality. The number of routine flight operations at Upolu Airport on the big island of Hawaii will dro...

China’s efforts to encircle India won’t work. That’s the message India and its allies, America and Japan are prepared to send to Beijing in a joint naval exercise. China has an official and an unofficial agenda for the Indian Ocean. The official agenda is to foster trade and economic ...

Navy personnel officials will take the highly unusual step of changing the membership of a master chief petty officer selection board after its annual deliberations were halted several weeks ago amid evidence that the deliberations were compromised. In a rare move that is likely to be...

WASHINGTON -- The Army will get funding to address some of the major capability gaps it has recently identified and will be able to execute some of the more pricey recommendations from the National Commission on the Future of the Army, all of which appeared on two wish lists it sent t...

Lockheed Martin is undertaking a range of enhancements to its Fury unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and anticipates an order for the platform this summer. Brendan Rhatigan, unmanned systems site director at the company's San Luis Obispo facility, told Jane's that the development is focus...

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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (May 4, 2017) -- Tuesday was a big day with a lot of moving pieces for the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment (2CR) as the unit executed an assessed-tactical convoy from Vilseck to the Hohenfels Training Area (HTA) during part of its certification process in Saber Juncti...

The UK's Vanguard Armoured Infantry Brigade has been given short notice to deploy on a 'high-readiness verification' exercise. Units from 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade, with its Headquarters in Germany, is currently fulfilling the role of the United Kingdom's High-Readiness Vanguard ...

Michael Martineck has been writing for longer than he’d like to admit. His last novel - The Milkman (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy), a murder mystery set in a world with no governments – won a gold medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was a finalist in the Eric Hoff...

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Facing the storm unleashed by the leaking of the Cyril Almeida story, “Act Against Militants or Face International Isolation, Civilians Tell Military ,” the Nawaz Sharif government labeled it as being “fabricated and planted”. The PM Office’s initial statement about DawnLeaks that “ev...